Friday, February 28, 2014

The Brennan Center regularly compiles the latest news concerning
the corrosive nature of money in New York State politics—and the ongoing need
for public financing and robust campaign finance reform. We’ll also be linking
to dispatches from around the country highlighting the national scope of this
crisis. This week’s links were contributed by Syed
Zaidi.
For more stories on an ongoing basis, follow the Twitter
hashtag #moNeYpolitics and #fairelex.

NEW YORK

Moreland Commission Co-chairs: Pass Election Reforms

In a Daily
News op-ed on Sunday, two of the co-chairs of the Moreland Commission to
Investigate Public Corruption explained why they recommended public financing
as a solution to the persistent problem of pay-to-play politics in Albany. Kathleen
Rice, the district attorney of Nassau County, and William Fitzpatrick, the
district attorney of Onondaga County, were among a number of legal experts and
district attorneys tasked with examining the state of New York’s corruption and
campaign laws. What the commission uncovered was not only illegal acts, but
numerous “legal activities that would shake anyone’s trust in our government.” As
Rice and Fitzpatrick explained, “Unfortunately, there is nothing illegal about
donating $100,000 to a politician’s reelection committee, then receiving millions
in the form of a helpful tax break in a spending bill.” However this year
offers a unique opportunity to end the corruption scandals in Albany, and
return state government back into the hands of citizens. “Imagine how much good
the government could do if our elected leaders had built-in incentives to spend
more time talking to and serving their constituents rather than doing the
bidding of well-connected donors?” Such a system is a real possibility—Governor
Cuomo has included a holistic package of reforms recommended by the commission
in his budget proposal. The only question that remains now is whether the
governor and the legislature will pass it.

New York Times: Public Financing Can Clean Up Albany

This week, Eleanor Randolph, of the New York Times editorial
board, endorsed
Governor Cuomo’s public financing proposal to reform elections in New York.
Randolph wrote that campaign finance is incredibly important, as the way
elections are funded predetermines who can run for public office. Under the
current system, only the wealthy or those with a vast network of well-heeled donors
can compete. The reform plan, which would
match small donations from constituents with public funds, has “worked well
for decades in New York City.” Randolph applauded the Public Campaign Action
Fund’s ad
campaign pushing public financing, which analogizes
the decrepit state of the Statue of Liberty with the corrosive political
environment in Albany. Although the Statue of Liberty took years to repair, she
notes, it “would take just a day or two for Albany’s politicians to enact this
crucial reform.”

Horner: Time for Cuomo and Legislature to Take Real Action
on Reform

Blair Horner, legislative director of the New York Public
Interest Research Group, in a commentary
piece for the WAMC Northeast Public Radio, demanded that Governor Cuomo and
the legislature take real action on campaign finance reform. “For at least 30
years, New York governors have called for sweeping campaign finance reforms.
But for all that talk, Governors Mario Cuomo, George Pataki, Eliot Spitzer and
David Paterson achieved virtually no reforms,” he stated. Horner commended
Cuomo for including reform in his budget—which forces the legislature to debate
the issue. A majority of assemblymen, as well as the Senate Co-leader Jeffrey
Klein have come out in favor of comprehensive reform with a voluntary public
financing option. Horner concludes: “Given the tremendous institutional power
of the executive, the support of the state Assembly, and the apparent support among
many Senators, the fate of meaningful campaign finance reform will hinge on
whether the governor can round up the necessary Senate votes.... How that plays
out will be a real test for the governor.”

Thursday, February 20, 2014

The Brennan Center regularly compiles the latest news concerning
the corrosive nature of money in New York State politics—and the ongoing need
for public financing and robust campaign finance reform. We’ll also be linking
to dispatches from around the country highlighting the national scope of this
crisis. This week’s links were contributed by Syed
Zaidi.
For more stories on an ongoing basis, follow the Twitter
hashtag #moNeYpolitics and #fairelex.

NEW YORK

Good Government Groups to Cuomo and Legislative Leaders:
Pass Reform Before Budget Deadline

Several good-government groups, including the New York
Public Interest Research Group, Common Cause, Citizen Action, the League of
Women Voters, and the Brennan Center, gathered in Albany on Tuesday to encourage
state leaders to enact comprehensive campaign finance reform. Governor
Cuomo has proposed numerous reforms in his budget: a system of matching small
donations with public funds, lower corporate contributions limits, and $5.3
million for the state Board of Elections to enforce campaign finance and
election laws. The governor, as well as Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon
Silver and Independent Democratic Conference Senate Co-leader Jeff Klein, have
all come
out in favor of public financing for election campaigns. With public
financing in the budget this year, the reform groups called on the elected
officials to make
sure it remains in the final budget agreement between the governor and
legislature.

Teachout on MSNBC: Fair Elections in New York Serves as
National Model

On Tuesday, Zephyr Teachout, associate professor at the Fordham
University School of Law, appeared on All
In With Chris Hayes on MSNBC to discuss the problem of money in American
politics. Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times joined Hayes and Teachout,
to explain the intricate network of undisclosed wealthy donors seeking to
influence American elections. When asked how we can solve the problem of money
in politics, Teachout said, “We should respond like the great Republican Teddy
Roosevelt with two different political responses. One is public funding of
campaigns. And two is breaking up this consolidated power.” When informed about
Tom Steyer—a retired billionaire investor who plans to spend
$100 million during the 2014 elections to pressure lawmakers to act on
climate change—Teachout said that his money would be better spent on addressing
the root causes of our government’s failure to address climate change. She gave
the example of the effort to pass public financing in New York State as one
solution to target the systemic problem of money in politics.

JCOPE Rejects Applications from Groups Seeking Disclosure
Exemptions

The New York Joint Commission on Public Ethics rejected
applications from four groups on Tuesday seeking exemptions from state disclosure
rules. The commission mandates reports from lobbying organizations, but can
withhold the records of contributors to the lobbying groups if the donors might
suffer “harm, threats, harassment or reprisals” from public knowledge of their
support to the specific entities. Applications from left-leaning
organizations such as the Family Planning Advocates (FPA), the Women’s Equality
Coalition (WEC), the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) as well as the
right-leaning New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms (NYCF) were rejected by
the commission. In the summer of last year, NARAL, a pro-choice organization
was granted exemption from disclosure. Two of the groups, the NYCLU and NYCF
said they
would consider every available option to protect their donors’ identities.

Friday, February 14, 2014

The Brennan Center regularly compiles the latest news concerning
the corrosive nature of money in New York State politics—and the ongoing need
for public financing and robust campaign finance reform. We’ll also be linking
to dispatches from around the country highlighting the national scope of this
crisis. This week’s links were contributed by Katherine Munyan and Syed
Zaidi.

A new bill proposed by Senator Jeffrey Klein (IDC-Bronx)
would require all spirits to be warehoused in New York for at least 24 hours
before they can be sold in the state. Currently many liquor merchants store
their products in New Jersey, where the imported wine typically arrives and the
cost of storage is lower. Wine sellers claim the legislation will lead to
higher prices for consumers, while proponents argue that it would put New York
law on par with other states and create more jobs. Empire Merchants and
Southern Wine and Spirits are two distributors with warehouses in New York that
allegedly stand to benefit from the bill. Pieces criticizing the legislation
appeared in the Albany
Times-Union and the Daily News.
The Times-Union column revealed that Empire Merchants and its leadership have
donated $53,000 to Senator Klein since 2009, and $31,000 to his Independent
Democratic Conference, which co-leads the Senate in a coalition with the
Republicans. A New
York Post investigation last week illustrated that Empire Merchants and its
subsidiaries have donated a total of $797,850 to state lawmakers since 2009,
while Southern Wine and Spirits has contributed $106,856 to state campaigns
over the same period.

Congressman Grimm’s Contributor Arraigned in Federal Court

Diana Durand, a 47-year-old resident of Houston, was arraigned
in federal court in Brooklyn on Wednesday for irregularities related to
U.S. Representative Michael Grimm’s campaign. A Justice Department probe of the
campaign alleges that Durand, a former business associate of Grimm, illegally
reimbursed donors in order to evade legal contribution limits and funnel
more money to Grimm’s 2010 Congressional campaign. Stuart Kaplan, the attorney
representing Durand, said
that Durand simply did not understand the regulations surrounding campaign
finance. “This is a woman that was never involved with politics before she met
Michael Grimm. I think she is totally or she was totally devoid or ignorant to
the rules or regulations or laws or ethical constraints with respect to
fundraising,” said Kaplan. Grimm’s campaign has been facing allegations of
irregularities for the past two years. Last year, Ofer Biton, a former
fundraiser for Grimm pleaded guilty to visa fraud. And a few weeks ago, in a video that has since
gone viral, the Congressman threatened a reporter who posed questions
regarding his campaign. However, Grimm has not been implicated in any of the
federal investigations.

Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has
filed documents in response to a dark money political consultant’s request
to quash a subpoena by the Moreland Commission to Investigate Public
Corruption. The Moreland Commission’s December subpoena to Strategic Advantage
International sought to shed light on the donations to and expenditures by Common
Sense Principles, which spent more dark money in the 2010 and 2012 elections
than any other entity in the state. The sole contributor listed on state
records for the group was a shell company; however the group’s website was
registered to Strategic Advantage International. According to filings, Common
Sense Principles raised
$2.62 million in 2010 and spent $2.54 million to run attack ads against
Democratic state senators. Attorney General Schneiderman said the commission
wants to gain an understanding of how dark money was spent in the state, in an
effort to improve state disclosure and political expenditure laws.

Monday, February 10, 2014

The Brennan Center regularly compiles the latest news
concerning the corrosive nature of money in New York State politics—and the
ongoing need for public financing and robust campaign finance reform. We’ll
also be linking to dispatches from around the country highlighting the national
scope of this crisis. This week’s links were contributed by Katherine Munyan
and Syed Zaidi.

A New
York Times editorial last week urged Governor Andrew Cuomo to press forward
on campaign finance reform. Pointing to last year’s scandals as an illustration
of the consequences of New York’s lax campaign finance laws, the Times insisted
that this is the right time for the legislature to address the issue. While
commending Governor Cuomo for including reform in his 2014-15 budget, the editorial
argued that “he should be ready to campaign against any lawmaker, Democrat or
Republican, who resists these crucial reforms.” The governor’s own fundraising
practices demonstrate the problems inherent in the current system. Of the $33.3
million Cuomo has raised thus far, only
0.69 percent is from contributors donating less than $1,000 in total. This
is in stark contrast to the pattern
under New York City’s public funding system, which explains why the
editorial referred to public funding of election campaigns as the “most
important reform.”

New York City Elections Show Power of Small Donors

The last set of disclosure statements from the 2013 New York
City election have been filed. A preliminary
analysis of the data by the Campaign Finance Board demonstrates that public
financing works well for New York City residents. The city provides a $6-to-$1
match for the first $175 of a contribution made by City residents. This turns a
$100 donation into $700, ensuring that candidates focus on their constituents,
not just special interests. In the 2013 election cycle, two-thirds of all
contributions were from individual city residents. For City Council elections,
86.9 percent of contributions came from individuals donating $250 or less. And
for city-wide offices, 64.2 percent of the contributions were from individuals
donating $250 or less.

Lane and Waldman in Newsday: New York Can Continue Theodore
Roosevelt’s Reform Legacy

In a Newsday
op-ed, Eric Lane, dean and professor at the Maurice A. Deane School of Law
at Hofstra University, and Michael Waldman, president of the Brennan Center for
Justice, urged state legislators to pass Governor Cuomo’s campaign finance
reform proposal. Back at the start of the 20th century, similar corruption
scandals plagued Albany. Witnessing the culture of corruption in both Albany
and Washington first hand, President and former New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt
proposed bold reforms to the nation’s campaign finance laws. In a 1907 speech
to Congress he called for public financing of elections to tame the power of
special interests. Today Albany faces the same problem, and this time we have
seen the solution work for decades. In New York City, matching small donations
with public funds has increased
competition and participation from small donors, as well as the socioeconomic
diversity of campaign contributors. “In Roosevelt’s time, special interests
fought hard to maintain the status quo, and the same is happening today. But
Cuomo’s reforms could help permanently change how we finance campaigns. It’s an
opportunity Cuomo and state lawmakers can’t afford to miss,” the op-ed stated.

Video Evidence Presented in Assemblyman Boyland’s Corruption
Trail

Assemblyman William Boyland Jr. (D-Brooklyn) is currently
being tried in federal court, and could face up to 30 years in prison if
convicted on the bribery charges. A video
played at the trial shows his father acting
as an intermediary in the bribery scandal that has engulfed the legislator.
An undercover agent posing as a businessman seeking permits for a carnival
testified that the assemblyman’s father, William Boyland Sr., accepted
a $3,000 payoff in exchange for a promise of assistance with the permit
approval process. Boyland Sr. can be heard in the video saying “Alright, just
legally, you know, you know, this is against the law, right?" Later
Boyland Sr. deposited the check in Assemblyman Boyland Jr.’s reelection
campaign account. Assemblyman Boyland Jr.’s staff later submitted to state
officials a letter seeking approval for the carnival. Boyland Jr. has said that
he never provided any assistance to the undercover agents trying to bribe him.